Method for purifying O, S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioate

ABSTRACT

A method for purifying O,S-dimethyl N-acetyphosphoramidothioate, which is characterized by subjecting a crude crystal of O,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioate to recrystallization by using a two-phase solvent system comprising water and an organic which is an aromatic hydrocarbon, an aliphatic carboxylic acid ester or aliphatic ketone, wherein the amount of water is 0.1 to 2 parts by weight and the amount of the organic solvent is 1 to 20 parts by weight to 1 part by weight of the crude O,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioate. A further method for purifying O,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioate, which is characterized by extracting O,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioate from an aqueous solution of crude O,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioate with an organic solvent which is a carbonate ester, an aliphatic carboxylic acid ester, an aliphatic ketone, an aliphatic alcohol or a mixture of two or more thereof, wherein the solubility of water in the organic solvent is in a range of from 1 to 20% by weight, and crystallizing O,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioate from the resulting organic phase.

This application is a divisional of application Ser. No. 08/531,751,filed on Sep. 21, 1995 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,616,769, the entire contentsof which are hereby incorporated by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an improved method for purifyingO,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioate.

DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART

O,S-dimethy N-acetylphosphoramidothioate is a well-known insecticide,and the production process comprising reactingO,S-dimethylphosphoramidothioate with acetic anhydride in the presenceof an acid catalyst to effect the acetylation has been known.O,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioate thus produced was isolated andpurified by such a method comprising the steps of extracting the productwith chloroform, washing with an aqueous sodium chloride solution andconcentrating the resultant(JP-B 48-34583), or by a method comprisingneutralizing the reaction solution with an aqueous alkaline solution,extracting the resultant with a halogenated solvent such asdichloromethane or chloroform, and then concentrating the extract torecrystallize(JP-A 64-75494).

However, these methods in which halogenated solvents were used has aproblem of low productivity in an industrial scale, because thecrystalization yield was not satisfactory or the transport of thecrystallization slurry solution in a chemical plant was difficult owingto the high concentration of the slurry and the high specific gravity ofthe solvents. In addition, halogenated solvents have problems overpreservation of the environment or environment for working.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an efficientpurification method that can provide O,S-dimethylN-acetylphosphoramidothioate as a crystal of high purity in a goodcrystallization yield and transportable recrystallization slurry whilewithout using halogenated solvents.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a method for purifying O,S-dimethylN-acetylphosphoramidothioate, which comprises subjecting a crude crystalof O,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioate to recrystallization byusing a two-phase solvent system comprising water and an organic solventwhich is an aromatic hydrocarbon, an aliphatic carboxylic acid ester oran aliphatic ketone, wherein the amount of water is 0.1 to 2 parts byweight and the amount of organic solvent is 1 to 20 parts by weight per1 part by weight of crude O,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioate.

The present invention also provides a method for purifying O,S-dimethylN-acetylphosphoramidothioate, which comprises extracting O,S-dimethylN-acetyphosphoramidothioate from an aqueous solution of crudeO,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioate with an organic solvent whichis a carbonate ester, an aliphatic carboxylic acid ester, an aliphaticketone aliphatic alcohol or a mixture of two or more thereof, whereinthe solubility of water in the organic solvent is in a range of from 1to 20% by weight, and crystallizing O,S-dimethylN-acetylphosphoramidothioate from the resulting organic phase.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

According to the present invention O,S-dimethylN-acetylphosphoramidothioate can be obtained as a crystal of high purityin a good crystallization yield or as a transportable recrystallizationslurry but without using halogenated solvents that are unfavorable.

Description will be made first of the method for purifying O,S-dimethylN-acetylphosphoramidothioate, which comprises subjecting a crude crystalof O,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioate to recrystallization byusing a two-phase solvent system comprising water and an organic solventwhich is an aromatic hydrocarbon, an aliphatic carboxylic acid ester oran aliphatic ketone, wherein the amount of water is 0.1 to 2 parts byweight and the amount of organic solvent is 1 to 20 parts by weight to 1part by weight of crude O,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioate.

O,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidotioate is usually obtained byacetylating O,S-dimehylphosphoroamidothioate. The acetylation reactionis usually conducted by reacting O,S-dimethylphosphoramidothioate withacetic anhydride in an organic solvent such as toluene, acetic acid orether or without using a solvent and further in the presence of an acidcatalyst such as a protonic acid (e.g. hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid)or a Lewis acid (e.g. boron trifluoride, aluminum chloride or zincchloride).

The crude crystal of O,S-diemthyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioate to besubjected to purification treatment of the present invention may be asolid crude product obtained by the reaction above which containsimpurities. The crude crystal may be a crystallized product obtained bycooling the reaction mixture after acetylation reaction, or a solidresidue obtained by concentrating the acetylation reaction mixture. Thecrude crystal usually contains at most about 90% by weight ofO,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioate and usually 10 to 30% byweight of unreacted material, by-products and other impurities.

When the acetylation reaction of O,S-dimethylphosphoramidothioate isconducted in a solvent, there occur problems prior to purificationsteps. For example, a part of the desired product may remainuncrystallized in the solvent used for the crystallization when theacetylation reaction mixture was cooled to form crude crystal, whichresulted in a yield reduction; or the efficiency of the concentration islow, because a large amount of reaction solvent must be removed bydistillation to obtain a solid residue. Therefore, in view of the totalyield from O,S-dimethylphosphoramidothioate and production efficiency, acrude crystal product recovered from the acetylation reaction using nosolvent or a little solvent if any, and preferably a crystallizedproduct obtained by cooling the said reaction solution are preferred forthe purification method of the present invention.

In the present invention, the crude crystal of O,S-dimethylN-acetylphosphoramidethioate is first subjected to recrystallizationusing a two-phase solvent system comprising water and a hardly orslightly water soluble organic solvent selected from the groupconsisting of aromatic hydrocarbon, aliphatic carboxylic acid ester andaliphatic ketone.

As the above-described organic solvents, a C₆ -C₁₂ benzene type compoundhaving a benzene ring which may be unsubstituted or substituted with oneor more C₁ -C₄ alkyl group may be preferably used, e.g. benzene,toluene, xylene, ethylbenzene or cumene may be mentioned.

As the aliphatic carboxylic acid ester, a C₁ -C₄ alkyl ester of a C₁ -C₄aliphatic carboxylic acid is preferably used, and specific examples arepropyl formate, isopropyl formate, methyl acetate, ethyl acetate,n-propyl acetate, isopropyl acetate, butyl acetate, methyl propionate,and ethyl propionate.

As the aliphatic ketone, a C₄ -C₈ aliphatic ketone is preferably used,and specific examples thereof are methyl ethyl ketone, methyl n-propylketone, methyl n-butyl ketone, methyl isobutyl ketone, diethyl ketoneand the like.

In the purification method of the present invention, the amount of waterand the organic solvent to be used is critical. The amount of water tobe used is 0.1 to 2 parts by weight, preferably 0.1 to 0.5 part byweight, and the amount of the organic solvent to be used is 1 to 20parts by weight, preferably 1 to 10 parts by weight per 1 part by weightof the crude crystal for the purpose of realizing a goodrecrystallization yield, high purity and easy transport of slurrysolution. If the amount of water or the organic solvent is not withinthis range, water-soluble impurities may remain unremoved, which resultsin poor purification or reduction in recrystallization yield.

In the purification method of the present invention, recrystallizationtreatment is not specially limited, and the recrystallization is usuallyconducted by a method of mixing the two-phase solvent system comprisingwater and the organic solvent with crude O,S-dimethylN-acetylphosphoramidothioate, heating the mixture until the crude solidgoes into the solution and then gradually cooling the resultant solutionto crystallize. After recrystallization, the resultant mixture issubjected to separation operation such as filtration and the like andthen dried e.g. by a conventional method of drying under reducedpressure to yield the desired O,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioateof high purity in a good crystallization yield.

The heating temperature is preferably 80° C. or lower, since a highertemperature may cause decomposition of the desired O,S-dimethylN-acetylphosphoramidothioate. To dissolve the solid completelyl at thetemperature, the amount of water and the kind and amount of the organicsolvent to be used are selected and adjusted within the above-specifiedrange of the present invention.

The cooling temperature is usually 30° C. or lower, preferably 10° C. orlower.

The filtrate obtained after separating the crystallized productaccording to the above-described method can be repeatedly used by addinga crude crystal of O,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioate thereto andthen subjecting the resultant solution to the same recrystallizationtreatment as above to yield a crystal of O,S-dimethylN-acetylphosphoramidothioate of high purity while maintaining the purityof the crystallized product, as long as the amount of water and theorganic solvent is within the above-described range of the presentinvention.

Next, description will be made on the method for purifying O,S-dimethylN-acetylphosphoramidothioate, which comprises extracting an aqueoussolution of crude O,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioate with acarbonate ester, aliphatic carboxylic acid ester, aliphatic ketone,aliphatic alcohol or a mixed solvent thereof, wherein the solubility ofwater to the solvent is in a range of from 1 to 20% by weight, followedby subjecting the resultant solution to crystallization.

The aqueous solution of crude O,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioateto be treated is usually obtained by directly adding water to thereaction mixture resulting from the acetylation reaction of O,S-dimethylphosphoramidothioate, or preferably a neutralized aqueous solutionobtained by adding aqueous alkaline solution to the said reactionmixture to neutralize remaining acid components accompanying theacetylation reaction. As an example of an alkaline solution to be usedfor the neutralization treatment, aqueous ammonia, aqueous caustic soda,aqueous caustic potash and aqueous sodium carbonate solution can bementioned. These aqueous alkaline solution which are usually used in anindustrial process can be used for the purifying treatment of thepresent invention without any adverse effect.

The aqueous solution to be treated by the present invention is notlimited to those mentioned above, and includes an aqueous solution ofcrude O,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioate obtained by dissolvingcrude O,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioate in water or the aqueousalkaline solution as described above.

The extracting solvent to be used may be a carbonate ester, aliphaticcarboxylic acid ester, aliphatic ketone, aliphatic alcohol or a mixtureof two or more thereof wherein the solubility of water to the solvent isin a range of from 1 to 20% by weight at 20° C.

In the method of the present invention it is critical to use thesolvents having the above specified characteristics. This is becausehydrocarbon solvents such as benzene, toluene and hexane can not bepractically used because of the scarce solubility of O,S-dimethylN-acetylphosphoramidothioate to those solvents. Although methanol,ethanol or acetone are aliphatic alcohols or aliphatic ketonesrespectively, they can not be used to extract O,S-dimethylN-acetylphosphoramidothioate from an aqueous solution of crudeO,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioate, because they can welldissolve O,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioate, but they are wellmisible with water at the same time.

The carbonate ester is preferably a (C₁ -C₄ alkyl) carbonate, e.g.methyl carbonate, ethyl carbonate or propyl carbonate.

The aliphatic carboxylic acid ester is preferably a C₁ -C₄ alkyl esterof a C₁ -C₄ aliphatic carboxylic acid, e.g. ethyl formate, propylformate, n-propyl acetate, isopropyl formate, methyl acetate, ethylacetate, isopropyl acetate, butyl acetate, methyl propionate or ethylpropionate.

The aliphatic ketone is preferably a C₄ -C₈ aliphatic ketone, e.g.methyl ethyl ketone, methyl n-propyl ketone, methyl n-butyl ketone,methyl isobutyl ketone or diethyl ketone.

The aliphatic alcohol is preferably isobutyl alcohol and n-pentylalcohol.

Especially preferred solvents are ethyl acetate and methyl isobutylketone.

The amount of solvent to be used varies according to the kind of thesolvent and is usually 0.3 to 10 parts by weight per 1 part by weight ofthe aqueous solution to be extracted.

The extracting operation is carried out by a usual method, for example,a method of mixing the specified solvent of the present invention andaqueous solution of crude O,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioate andthen stirring, or passing the solution and the solvent continuouslythrough extraction column in concurrent or counter-current direction andthen separating to obtain an organic phase and a water layer. Anyoptional method can be taken for the extracting operation.

The temperature of extraction operation varies according to the kind andamount of the solvent and is not specifically limited as long as it islower than the boiling point of the solvent. The temperature is usually70° C. or lower, preferably 50° C. or lower because a higher temperaturemay bring about decomposition of the product.

The extraction operation gives an organic phase containing some water,which may be subsequently cooled to crystallize O,S-dimethylN-acetylphosphoramidothioate according to the extraction conditions suchas the kind and amount of the solvent and extraction temperature, but ausually adopted method comprises concentrating the solution bydistillating a part of the solvent to yield a concentrate and thencooling the concentrate to crystallize.

The concentration operation varies depending on the kind of the solventto be used and is usually conducted so that the concentration ofO,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioate is 10 to 50% by weight. Thetemperature of the concentration is usually 70° C. or lower to avoid thedecomposition of the product and under reduced pressure, if necessary.

The cooling is usually conducted by stirring the concentrate, and thetemperature is determined depending on the concentration degree. Thetemperature is usually -10° to +30° C.

The present invention will be further explained in detail by thefollowing examples but are not to be construed as limiting the inventionthereto.

Preparation Example of Crude O,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioate

95.2 Grams of dimethyl sulfate were gradually added to 1500 g (purity86.3%) of O,O-dimethylphosphoramidothioate and the resultant was furtherreacted for 6 hours to effect the isomerization reaction toO,S-dimethylphosphoramidothioate. 41 Grams of 98% conc. sulfuric acidand 1218 g of acetic anhydride were separately but at the same timeadded to the reaction mixture at 40° C. and further reacted for 2 hours.The obtained reaction solution was cooled to 10° C., and thecrystallized product was collected to give 805 g of crude O,S-dimethylN-acetylphosphoramidothioate. The purity of the product was 86%.

EXAMPLE 1

50 Grams of the crude crystal of O,S-dimethylN-acetylphosphoramidothioate obtained in the above described reactionwere added to a mixed solvent consisting of 10 g of water and 100 g oftoluene, and the resultant solution was heated to 40° C. under stirringto dissolve the crystal. Then the solution was cooled gradually to 10°C. to obtain a crystallization slurry. The resultant crystal wasfiltered at the same temperature. The collected crystal was dried underreduced pressure to yield 26.7 g of O,S-dimethylN-acetylphosphoramidothioate (purity 98.5%, purification yield 61.5%).The slurry concentration of the crystallized mass was 16.3%, and thetransport of the slurry was easy.

EXAMPLE 2

30 Grams of the crude crystal O,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioateobtained in the Preparation Example 1 above were added to the filtrateas it is obtained in the Example 1 and the resultant solution was heatedto 40° C. to dissolve the crystal under stirring. Then the solution wascooled gradually to 10° C. to crystallize, the resultant crystal wasfiltered at the same temperature. The collected crystal was dried underreduced pressure to yield 25.8 g of O,S-dimethylN-acetylphosphoramidothioate (purity 98.1%, purification yield 98%,Overall purification yield of Examples 1 and 2 was 75%).

EXAMPLE 3 to 5

Except that the mixed solvents described in the Table 1 were used inplace of the mixed solvent of Example 1, the recrystallization wasconducted in the same manner as in the Example 1. The results are shownin Table 1.

                  TABLE 1                                                         ______________________________________                                                            Purification    Slurry                                    Exp. Organic solvent (g)                                                                          Yield     Purity                                                                              concentration                             No.  mixed with water (10 g)                                                                      (%)       (%)   (%)                                       ______________________________________                                        3    Methyl isobutyl                                                                              76.2      99.2  19.1                                           ketone (100 g)                                                           4    Ethyl acetate (100 g)                                                                        61.9      98.4  16.7                                      5    Xylene (100 g) 61.5      99.3  16.6                                      ______________________________________                                    

COMPARATIVE EXAMPLE 1

To 50 g of the crude crystal O,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioateobtained in the above-described preparation was added 15 g of water andthe resultant solution was heated to 40° C. to dissolve the crystalunder stirring. Then the solution was cooled gradually to 5° C. tocrystalize, the resultant crystal was filtered at the same temperature.The collected crystal was dried under reduced pressure to yield 10.8 gof O,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioate (purity 94.5%, purificationyield 24%, Slurry concentration of the crystallization mass: 16.7% ).

COMPARATIVE EXAMPLE 2

To 50 g of crude crystal O,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioateobtained above was added 100 g of toluene and the mixture was heated to50° C. while stirring. Then the resulting was subjected to the sametreatment as in Example 1 to give a crystal of O,S-dimethylN-acetylphosphoramidothioate(purity: 89%, recovery rate of the crystal:86%).

COMPARATIVE EXAMPLE 3

To 50 g of crude crystal O,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioateobtained in Preparation Example 1 above was added 100 g of methylenechloride and the mixture was heated to 40° C. while stirring to dissolvethe crude product. Then the resulting was gradually cooled to 5° C. Nocrystal was obtained.

COMPARATIVE EXAMPLE 4

To 50 g of crude crystal O,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioateobtained above were added 15 g of methylene chloride, and the resultantsolution was heated to dissolve the crystal under stirring. Then thesolution was cooled gradually to 5° C. to crystallize, and the resultantcrystal was filtered at the same temperature. The collected crystal wasdried under reduced pressure to yield 28.8 g of O,S-dimethylN-acetylphosphoramidothioate (purity 97.0%, purification yield 65%,Slurry concentration of the crystallization mass: 43% ). The slurry wastoo viscous to transport.

Preparation Example of Crude O,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioate 2

1292 Grams of 29% by weight of aqueous ammonia were added to a 2100 g oftoluene solution containing 1608.6 g of O,O-dimethyl thiophosphorylchloride at 50° C. over 40 min. The reaction solution was further keptat the same temperature for an hour and 359 g of water were addedthereto and separated as a toluene layer and a water layer. The obtainedwater layer was extracted with 600 g of toluene at 50° C. The combinedtoluene solution was evaporated under reduced pressure to give 1506 g ofO,O-dimethylphosphoramidothioate(purity: 86.3%).

19.1 Grams of dimethyl sulfate were gradually added to 296 g (purity86.3%) of O,O-dimethylphosphoramidothioate at 40° C. in 30 min and tothe resultant were further added 1180 g of O,O-dimethylphosphoramidothioate and 76.1 g of dimethyl sulfate at the sametemperature over 2 hours separately. The resultant reaction mixture wasfurther maintained at the temperature for 8 hours to obtain 1562 g ofO,S-dimethyl phosphoramidothioate(purity: 79.1%). To 1562 g of obtainedO,S-dimethyl phosphoramidothioate was added 1218 g of acetic anhydrideand 41 g of dimethyl sulfate at 40° C. over an hour. The resultant wasmaintained at the temperature for an hour to complete the reaction togive 2799 g of crude O,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioate (purity:49.13%).

EXAMPLE 6

Purification solvent: Ethyl acetate(solubility of water: 3.6%)

556 Grams of water and then 741 g of 29% by weight of aqueous ammoniawere added to 2000 g of crude O,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioateobtained above(purity:49.13%) at 30° C. to adjust the pH of the solutionto 7. The aqueous solution was extracted with 8992 g of ethyl acetate bycontinuous counter-current method to give 10272 g of ethyl acetatelayer. The ethyl acetate layer was evaporated under reduced pressure toremove a part of the ethyl acetate, and 4504 g of a concentratecontaining 20.5% by weight of O,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioatewas obtained.

The concentrate was cooled under stirring from 40° to 10° C. in 3 hoursand maintained at 10° C. for an hour. The crystallized product wasfiltered (slurry concentration: 14.3%) and dried under reduced pressureto give 646 g of 99.6% pure O,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioate asa white crystal. The crystallization yield was 69.6%. There was nodifficulty to transport the slurry obtained after crystallization.

EXAMPLE 7-11

300 Grams of the crude O,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioateobtained in the "Preparation Example were treated according to the sameprocedure of Example 6 using the solvents listed in Table 2 to obtain aconcentrated solution, of which concentration is listed in Table 2.There was no difficulty to transport the slurry obtained bycrystallization. The results are summarized in Table 2 below.

                  TABLE 2                                                         ______________________________________                                                          Concentration                                               Exp. Solvent      before crystallization/                                                                     Crystalli-                                                                           Yield/                                 No.  (Solubility of water)                                                                      Slurry        zation Purity                                 ______________________________________                                        7    Ethyl acetate (3.6%)                                                                       30.8%    24.9%  80.5%  99.2%                                8    Methyl ethyl   43%    18.6%  43.3%  97.8%                                     ketone (10%)                                                             9    Methyl isobutyl                                                                            12.5%     6.1%  48.6%  98.8%                                     ketone (1.9%)                                                            10   Methyl carbonate                                                                             33%    22.3%  67.6%  98.8%                                     (2.7%)                                                                   11   i-Butyl alcohol                                                                              35%    16.5%  46.8%  98.1%                                     (18%)                                                                    ______________________________________                                    

Extraction using dichloromethane 1

53.6 Grams of water and 70.8 g of 24%by weight of aqueous ammonia wereadded at 30° C. to 200 g of the crude O,S-dimethylN-acetylphosphoramidothioate obtained in the Preparation Example 2(purity:49.13%) to give an aqueous solution of crude O,S-dimethylN-acetylphosphoramidothioate, and the pH of the solution was adjusted to7. Methylene chloride(330 g) was added to the aqueous solution and theresultant mixture was subjected to extraction to give 462 g of methylenechloride extract solution of which O,S-dimethylN-acetylphosphoramidothioate content was 20.2% by weight. A part of themethylene chloride was distilled off under reduced pressure to give180.6 g of a concentrated methylene chloride solution of whichO,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioate content was 51.7% by weight.The methylene chloride solution was cooled in 3 hours from 30° to 18° C.at which temperature the slurry was transportable and then maintained at18° C. for an hour. The crystallized product was collected by filtration(slurry concentration: 18.6%) and the crystal was dried under reducedpressure to give 33.6 g of 98.6% pure O,S-dimethylN-acetylphosphoramidothioate as a white crystal. The crystallizationyield was 35.6%.

Extraction using dichloromethane 2

90.3 Grams (content: 51.7%) of the concentrated methylene chloridesolution obtained by the same method described above were cooled from30° to 10° C. over 3 hours and then maintained at 10° C. for an hour.The crystallized product was collected by filtration (slurryconcentration: 29.6%) and the crystal was dried under reduced pressureto give 26.6 g of 98.6% pure O,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioateof 98.6% purity as a white crystal. The crystallization yield was 56.2%.The slurry was extremely viscous and transport of it was difficult.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for purifying O,S-dimethylN-acetylphosphoramidothioate, which comprises extracting O,S-dimethylN-acetylphosphoramidothioate from an aqueous solution of crudeO,S-dimethyl N-acetylphosphoramidothioate with an organic solvent whichis a carbonate ester, an aliphatic carboxylic acid ester, an aliphaticketone, an aliphatic alcohol or a mixture of two or more thereof,wherein the solubility of water in the organic solvent is in a range offrom 1 to 20% by weight, and crystallizing O,S-dimethylN-acetylphosphoramidothioate from the resulting organic phase.
 2. Amethod according to claim 1, wherein the organic solvent is a C₁ -C₄alkyl ester of C₁ -C₄ aliphatic carboxylic acid.
 3. A method accordingto claim 2, wherein the ester of C₁ -C₄ aliphatic carboxylic acid isethyl acetate.
 4. A method according to claim 1, wherein the organicsolvent is a (C₁ -C₄ alkyl) carbonate.
 5. A method according to claim 4,wherein the organic solvent is methyl carbonate.
 6. A method accordingto claim 1, wherein the organic solvent is a C₄ -C₈ aliphatic ketone. 7.A method according to claim 6, wherein the organic solvent is methylethyl ketone or methyl isobutyl ketone.